Went once and totally enjoyed it. Between seatings, Waters was sitting in the back surrounded by her staff - looking like Jesus and the disciples. Maybe it was the fantastic food and drink, but I found it somewhat moving.

People eating at good restaurants these days owe her a big debt of gratitude, seriously.

That's two weeks. Either they're understating how long it will be closed, or there wasn't much more than smoke damage.Just getting permits and inspections would take longer than two weeks on any major reconstruction.

snailbarf:A tumbleweed made of hemp and kale was seen leaving the scene, cutting off several Priuses and Subarus. Witnesses said it had a bumper sticker that spelled out "Coexist" using every religious symbol.

snailbarf:A tumbleweed made of hemp and kale was seen leaving the scene, cutting off several Priuses and Subarus. Witnesses said it had a bumper sticker that spelled out "Coexist" using every religious symbol.

/Will never live in Berkeley again

But you'll live in Fremont? That's a pretty big price to pay to escape the Prius and granola crowd.

The firepersons didn't use curb water, did they?!?! I will not frequent an establishment that has been polluted by common, flouridated, chlorinated, processed water. It must be certified free-range, hormone-free and pure non-carbon filtered!

snailbarf:A tumbleweed made of hemp and kale was seen leaving the scene, cutting off several Priuses and Subarus. Witnesses said it had a bumper sticker that spelled out "Coexist" using every religious symbol.

/Will never live in Berkeley again

Let me laugh again at your Fremont, CA location.I live outside of Berkeley, CA....but that restaurant should be on most folks bucket list (along with Pron/Shark/Wrestling).

This makes me happy. Really. It does! Alice Waters has to be one of the most pretentious "limousine liberals" there is! farking smug food snob supreme! Talking so preachy about "slow food", and the environment, yet she has no problem firing up a big-ass woodburning oven just to cook a single fried egg for Leslie Stahl, while she takes a giant verbal sh*t on the head of every American mother who has neither the money nor the time to cook as fancy as Alice wants them to.

(I can only imagine the carbon footprint that this hypocrite made just for one egg)

And then the really big scandal came a couple of years ago, when Anthony Bourdain said something like "You know something? We need to create a diet plan where anyone can afford to eat right. Not just the rich people.". This made Alice shoot her tampon clear across the room in a rage. The very idea that ordinary people could afford a decent diet instead of paying through the nose at Whole Paycheck absolutely infuriated her. It was like she was horrified that you or I could somehow eat just as well as an elitist food snob like her. That only the rich can (and should) afford to eat right, because that made them special.

As the sun rose over the Berkeley hills, a tearful Alice Waters stood in front of the iconic Berkeley institution that she cofounded in 1971, recalling a fire that started more than 30 years ago, as she cooked in the kitchen.

Tears_that_smell_like_dogfood:snailbarf: A tumbleweed made of hemp and kale was seen leaving the scene, cutting off several Priuses and Subarus. Witnesses said it had a bumper sticker that spelled out "Coexist" using every religious symbol.

/Will never live in Berkeley again

Let me laugh again at your Fremont, CA location.I live outside of Berkeley, CA....but that restaurant should be on most folks bucket list (along with Pron/Shark/Wrestling).

I once wrestled a pr0n shark. Them's slippery bastards, and they tend to go below the belt far too often.

I've only been there once and that was nearly 20 years ago. I'm sure it was great, but I only remember the place now. Crappy thing to happen to anyone. They'll recover quite well I'm sure. They've got the fame to get things rolling quickly.

What a shame. Ate there a few years ago, and it was amazing. Dining around the Bay area, you can tell she has had a salutory effect on how food and produce are seen. There are a lot of organic farmers who can thank her for supporting their industry and increasing demand for good food. Kind of a shame she has not had more of a national voice, sort of as the antithesis to Paula Deen.

BTW TV's Vinnie, would you like fresh cracked pepper with your schadenfreude?

This makes me happy. Really. It does! Alice Waters has to be one of the most pretentious "limousine liberals" there is! farking smug food snob supreme! Talking so preachy about "slow food", and the environment, yet she has no problem firing up a big-ass woodburning oven just to cook a single fried egg for Leslie Stahl, while she takes a giant verbal sh*t on the head of every American mother who has neither the money nor the time to cook as fancy as Alice wants them to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRFIzyh0q2A

(I can only imagine the carbon footprint that this hypocrite made just for one egg)

And then the really big scandal came a couple of years ago, when Anthony Bourdain said something like "You know something? We need to create a diet plan where anyone can afford to eat right. Not just the rich people.". This made Alice shoot her tampon clear across the room in a rage. The very idea that ordinary people could afford a decent diet instead of paying through the nose at Whole Paycheck absolutely infuriated her. It was like she was horrified that you or I could somehow eat just as well as an elitist food snob like her. That only the rich can (and should) afford to eat right, because that made them special.

PS: Her attempt to bring her bullsh*t to Beijing bombed too BTW. her kind of weirdness only works in berkeley, but in the real world? Not so much.

I've sometimes wondered what it would be like to have the sort of personality whose every component - even ones sense of humor, was driven by rage, hatred, fear and envy.There are some sad, sad people here on Fark.I pity you, Vinnie - if I were religious, I would pray for you.

Alice Waters is apparently a big inspiration for Michelle Obama's organic garden at the White House. What I'm saying is this: if there was a Republican in Berkeley at the time of the fire, they were most certainly the arsonist.

felching pen:The firepersons didn't use curb water, did they?!?! I will not frequent an establishment that has been polluted by common, flouridated, chlorinated, processed water. It must be certified free-range, hormone-free and pure non-carbon filtered!

Hate all you want, but when you're at the grocery check out the packaged salads. See the one that says "Earthbound Farms"? they started as a nice couple growing lettuces for Waters et al. Now, +$100mil annual. I too have had my share of the pretentiousness, but in the short history if this nation, Chez Panisse has had a major influence on its palate./csb

And then the really big scandal came a couple of years ago, when Anthony Bourdain said something like "You know something? We need to create a diet plan where anyone can afford to eat right. Not just the rich people.".

I lived just across the bridge from Berkeley in the late 80s and the food snobbery was insane. I had just moved to the SF Bay Area from rural Ohio, where I had eaten exclusively from the meat and vegetables of the family farm, slaughtering our own cows, preserving food for winter, etc. This lifestyle was derided as poor and backward, to the point my co-workers put up a shrine to Ohio in the office consisting of velvet paintings of Jesus and Elvis. Chez Panisse, however, was so original and daring, preparing food from pseudo local ingredients. I was incensed to be lectured about fresh food in California, the state that almost singlehandedly destroyed the taste of food in America by developing strains of vegetables whose sole quality was the ability to be transported over long distances.

As the sun rose over the Berkeley hills, a tearful Alice Waters stood in front of the iconic Berkeley institution that she cofounded in 1971, recalling a fire that started more than 30 years ago, as she cooked in the kitchen.

TV's Vinnie:This makes me happy. Really. It does! Alice Waters has to be one of the most pretentious "limousine liberals" there is! farking smug food snob supreme! Talking so preachy about "slow food", and the environment, yet she has no problem firing up a big-ass woodburning oven just to cook a single fried egg for Leslie Stahl, while she takes a giant verbal sh*t on the head of every American mother who has neither the money nor the time to cook as fancy as Alice wants them to.

Sure. Because Waters hasn't devoted massive amounts of her time and money providing healthy food to school children in all communities.

jso2897:I've sometimes wondered what it would be like to have the sort of personality whose every component - even ones sense of humor, was driven by rage, hatred, fear and envy.There are some sad, sad people here on Fark.I pity you, Vinnie - if I were religious, I would pray for you.

Welcome to Fark.

Hickory-smoked:Sure. Because Waters hasn't devoted massive amounts of her time and money providing healthy food to school children in all communities.

Oh wait she does.

Actually, her efforts are causing more harm to our educational system than you think.

"The peculiar evil is this: that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food ... When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit "tasty." There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you. Let's have a three pennorth of chips! Run out and buy us a two-penny ice cream! Put the kettle on and we'll all have a nice cup of tea ... Unemployment is an endless misery that has got to be palliated." -- George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, 1937

So the message to Alice Waters, Jamie Oliver, and all the other smug food snobs out there, is that the masses aren't a bunch of ignorant cattle who stuff their faces with Cheetos because you think they are a herd of fat dumbfarks. They do so because their lives are awful enough having to work their asses off day after day trying to keep one pinkslip away from losing their jobs and their homes. So they are desperate for any simple pleasure that they can find. The last thing anyone wants to do after working a ten hour shift at an Amazon warehouse is to sit down with a bowl of kale. They don't have the time or the energy to do a full meal. Sometimes there's just enough energy left in their weary carcasses to toss a Hungry Man dinner and press the buttons on the microwave.

If your kale cannot compete with their breakfast burrito, then TOUGH SH*T!

TV's Vinnie:This makes me happy. Really. It does! Alice Waters has to be one of the most pretentious "limousine liberals" there is! farking smug food snob supreme! Talking so preachy about "slow food", and the environment, yet she has no problem firing up a big-ass woodburning oven just to cook a single fried egg for Leslie Stahl, while she takes a giant verbal sh*t on the head of every American mother who has neither the money nor the time to cook as fancy as Alice wants them to.

I didn't watch it this time, but watched it the first time. I didn't find her privileged attitude to be any more offensive than expressing the sentiment that, for example, if poor people are tired of being poor, they should just work harder.

TV's Vinnie:So the message to Alice Waters, Jamie Oliver, and all the other smug food snobs out there, is that the masses aren't a bunch of ignorant cattle who stuff their faces with Cheetos because you think they are a herd of fat dumbfarks. They do so because their lives are awful enough having to work their asses off day after day trying to keep one pinkslip away from losing their jobs and their homes. So they are desperate for any simple pleasure that they can find. The last thing anyone wants to do after working a ten hour shift at an Amazon warehouse is to sit down with a bowl of kale. They don't have the time or the energy to do a full meal. Sometimes there's just enough energy left in their weary carcasses to toss a Hungry Man dinner and press the buttons on the microwave.

If your kale cannot compete with their breakfast burrito, then TOUGH SH*T!

And then there's my grandparents' generation, where they worked harder but Grandma prepared food from scratch. Greens were often involved, probably even kale.

theMightyRegeya:TV's Vinnie: So the message to Alice Waters, Jamie Oliver, and all the other smug food snobs out there, is that the masses aren't a bunch of ignorant cattle who stuff their faces with Cheetos because you think they are a herd of fat dumbfarks. They do so because their lives are awful enough having to work their asses off day after day trying to keep one pinkslip away from losing their jobs and their homes. So they are desperate for any simple pleasure that they can find. The last thing anyone wants to do after working a ten hour shift at an Amazon warehouse is to sit down with a bowl of kale. They don't have the time or the energy to do a full meal. Sometimes there's just enough energy left in their weary carcasses to toss a Hungry Man dinner and press the buttons on the microwave.

If your kale cannot compete with their breakfast burrito, then TOUGH SH*T!

And then there's my grandparents' generation, where they worked harder but Grandma prepared food from scratch. Greens were often involved, probably even kale.

And your Neanderthal ancestors had the time to go out and BONK-BONK some mammoths for meat. What's your point?

When you have just enough "free time" between shifts to grab a bite to eat and get some sleep before you drag yourself back to the job, you don't want to waste several hours making everything from scratch.

I'm sure you Grandmother would have killed for a Cuisinart and a microwave in her era.

This makes me happy. Really. It does! Alice Waters has to be one of the most pretentious "limousine liberals" there is! farking smug food snob supreme! Talking so preachy about "slow food", and the environment, yet she has no problem firing up a big-ass woodburning oven just to cook a single fried egg for Leslie Stahl, while she takes a giant verbal sh*t on the head of every American mother who has neither the money nor the time to cook as fancy as Alice wants them to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRFIzyh0q2A

(I can only imagine the carbon footprint that this hypocrite made just for one egg)

And then the really big scandal came a couple of years ago, when Anthony Bourdain said something like "You know something? We need to create a diet plan where anyone can afford to eat right. Not just the rich people.". This made Alice shoot her tampon clear across the room in a rage. The very idea that ordinary people could afford a decent diet instead of paying through the nose at Whole Paycheck absolutely infuriated her. It was like she was horrified that you or I could somehow eat just as well as an elitist food snob like her. That only the rich can (and should) afford to eat right, because that made them special.

PS: Her attempt to bring her bullsh*t to Beijing bombed too BTW. her kind of weirdness only works in berkeley, but in the real world? Not so much.

I've sometimes wondered what it would be like to have the sort of personality whose every component - even ones sense of humor, was driven by rage, hatred, fear and envy.There are some sad, sad people here on Fark.I pity you, Vinnie - if I were religious, I would pray for you.